GUATEMALA - Palm Sunday 3/24/13

AMAZING!!

I think it's safe to say that is the word to describe today, and after a long day of travel yesterday, AMAZING was very much welcomed!  We started the day with a wonderful breakfast and moved into a time of Sunday morning worship with a little off-key singing and a wonderful sermon by Frank, pastor from LaBelle, FL.  Frank reminded us that if we are on the road to Calvary with Jesus, it will be a road marked by sacrifice, surrender and service.  Which road are you on?

Then, we all loaded into two Vietnam era supply trucks turned people movers and headed up the mountain.  Some to the coffee plantation where Jessica drank her first ever cup of coffee and Taylor reconfirmed his dislike of it.  Some climbed higher up the mountain to zip line.  Francis, also affectionately known as Frannie-O zip lined for the first time at age 72!!!

This is Holy Week in Antigua, and the amount of people here is AMAZING!  People come from all over to take part in and watch the Holy Week events.  Through the week there will be many processions with floats made and carried by the people of Antigua. 

 

Today was Palm Sunday (Domingo de Ramos). Some of us watched today's BIG procession in the morning and some this evening, but either way you saw it, it was AMAZING!  Beautiful carpets handmade with colored sawdust, wood shavings, flowers, fruit, all made as a gift to our Savior who died for us.  Some team members got to participate in the making of the carpets!  Men and boys dressed in long purple robes with white head pieces and the beautiful women of the town in black or white dresses with sparkling lace veils, carrying the heavy floats as an offering of service for our Lord.  The floats swayed side to side with each footstep of those carrying them followed by bands playing.  Incense floated through the crowds with a smell I don't think we will ever forget.  Atop the floats were bigger than life size depictions of Jesus, Mary, John, Mary Magdalene and others.  The sites, sounds, and smells of the procession really were AMAZING and truly inspiring!

 

Tomorrow we get up bright and early to head to our first day at the Malnutrition Center as our gift of service to our Savior. We are so excited to see what God has in store for us and the children/workers this week. Please continue to pray for us and the Center that we will truly be about Gods business and that we will be able to show His love to those in the Center and in Antigua. Trusting that this week will be nothing short of AMAZING!